ABSTRACT
Teacher shortage challenges several Nordic countries and prompts researchers and policymakers to find perspectives that make the teacher job more attractive. Addressing these challenges, the chapter discusses the following question: What qualities enable teachers to stay in the profession, and which ethical frameworks are these qualities related to? First, the chapter describes the scope of teacher shortage in Nordic countries and reviews how the phenomenon is addressed in European countries and the United States. Grounded in this review, I secondly present a set of teacher qualities that international research emphasizes as relevant for teachers to stay in the profession: (1) a teacher identity to manage a wide range of tasks, (2) self-care that sustains teacher resilience, (3) a work environment that provides multiple supports, and (4) having professional autonomy. Third, I explore what binds these teacher qualities together and argue that they can be linked through their common foundation in ethics of care. Having demonstrated that teaching goes beyond learning and involves ethics of care, I show that care is necessary to appraise what the situation in a classroom is about, to make judgments for teaching, and to coordinate actions toward educational aims. The conclusion highlights how ethics of care can support the development of teacher qualities that teachers require to stay in the profession.
